THIS and THAT in an undocumented dialect of Rawang

Nathan Straub

Payap University

ICSTLL47, Kunming, China

17-19 Oct 2014

Rawang

145,000 speakers in Myanmar

SOV languageLots of morphology

Standard dialect: Mvtwang

This talk: Rvmøn Dvru

Why?

• Not much written about Rawang dialects besides Standard Mvtwang

• Not much written about demonstratives in Rawang

• Unanswered questions• “Oh, that word is Mvtwang, but we don‘t have a word for that...”

Rvkwi Dvng’s stories

• 6 Folktales (FT) and one Creation Story (CS)• 2,023 unique words

• 6,334 words of running text

• Collected by Randy LaPolla in 1996

• Storyteller lived in Nokmong, Kachin State (age 88)

• Dialect: Rvmøn Dvru

Other data sources

• Interviews with Rawang speakers in Chiang Mai• Achang Chømgunggang and her parents (Rvmøn and Zewang speakers from

Nokmong area)

• Pastor Joseph Sinwal (Waqdamkong speaker from Machanbo and Putao area)

• Anang (Joseph‘s wife, Mvtwang speaker)

• Malung Pung (Malung Dvru speaker)

• Pastor Ajong (Akøpay Dvru speaker from Nam Tamai river)

• Peter (Chinlay Tangsar speaker)

• Ahkhi (Anung-Lisu from Putao)

Methods

• Elicitation

• Corpus analysis

• Interviews

Rvmøn Dvru Mvtwang Waqdamkong

(2014)

Waqdamkong

(1934)

Akøpay Dvru Chinlay Dvngsar Anung

This (proximal) ya ya ya ya [jɑ] (ya ) ya ya

That (medial) or

anaphora

vya (out of sight, 2nd

mention)

we kvt vya

That over there

(distal)

ku

ku ː (very far)

lu (= ku )

lu ː (very far)

ku

ku ː (very far)

ku

ku ː (very far)

hku [kʰu] (ku) ku ko

ko ː (very far)

That up there [(ku ) mvdvm taq

(vl)] (‘that above

LOC be.at’)

lo

lo ː (very far/high)

[(ku ) mvdvm taq vl]

(‘that above LOC

be.at’)

law [lɔ] mvdvm mvdvm na

That in the middle

(level)

[(ku ) rvwe yvng vl]

(‘that middle LOC

be.at’)

[(ku ) rvwe yvng vl]

(‘that middle LOC

be.at’)

That down there [(ku ) pvng taq (vl)]

(‘that below LOC

be.at’)

pvng (rare)

[ku lvngpvng taq vl]

(‘that below LOC

be.at’)

pvng (rare)

ku or kvt (common)

er [ə] pvng pa ng (rare)

ko (common)

Contrastive tvn tiq-yoq ('another

one-CLF')

wa wa wa (usu. out of

sight)

Close to addressee

or someone else;

concealed by an

object

(relative clause) (relative clause)

Rvmøn Dvru Mvtwang Waqdamkong

(2014)

Waqdamkong

(1934)

Akøpay Dvru Chinlay

Dvngsar

Anung

This

(proximal)

ya ya ya ya [jɑ] (ya ) ya ya

That (medial)

or anaphora

vya (out of

sight, 2nd

mention)

we kvt vya

That over

there (distal)

ku

ku ː (very far)

lu (= ku )

lu ː (very far)

ku

ku ː (very far)

ku

ku ː (very far)

hku [kʰu] (ku) ku ko

koː (very far)

Rvmøn Dvru Mvtwang Waqdamkong(2014)

Waqdamkong(1934)

Akøpay Dvru Chinlay Tangsar

Anung

That up there [(ku ) mvdvm

taq (v l)] (‘that

above LOC

be.at’)

lo

loː (very

far/high)

[(ku ) mvdvm

taq vl] (‘that

above LOC

be.at’)

law [lɔ] mvdvm mvdvm na

That in the

middle (level)

[(ku ) rvwe

yvng vl] (‘that

middle LOC

be.at’)

[(ku ) rvwe

yvng vl] (‘that

middle LOC

be.at’)

That down

there

[(ku ) pvng taq

(vl)] (‘that

below LOC

be.at’)

pvng (rare)

[ku lvngpvng

taq vl] (‘that

below LOC

be.at’)

pvng (rare)

ku or kvt

(common)

er [ə] pv ng pa ng (rare)

ko (common)

Rvmøn Dvru Mvtwang Waqdamkong(2014)

Waqdamkong(1934)

Akøpay Dvru Chinlay Tangsar

Anung

Contrastive tvn tiq-yoq

('another one-

CLF')

wa wa wa (usu. out

of sight)

Close to

addressee or

someone else;

concealed by

an object

(relative

clause)

(relative

clause)

Ya ‘this’

• Dem+CLF

• Dem+N

• Dem+Name

• Dem+GM (GM = Gender Marker: pe (male), me (female))

• Dem+Time

• Ya-yong ‘like.this’ (Adverbial)

Vya ‘that mentioned before’

• Dem+person (8x)• Dem+GM (4x) • Dem+GM+Name (1x)• Dem+Name-GM (1x)• Dem+N+Dim+GM (1x)• Dem+N+Dim+CLF (1x)

• Dem+time (1x)

• Speakers interviewed didn‘t mention vya at first, then when I asked them, they said it was a Dvru word (not used in Mvtwang or Dvngsar)

We ‘that.medial’

• Demonstrative

• Relativizer (or nominalizer)

• Mvtwang form

• Code-switched in Rvkwi Dvng‘s Creation Story (used 10 times, all in a 4-page section out of 63 pages)

• Used in quotations from a giant in the story (a different character voice)

• These lines were sung rather than spoken, so probably memorized from a Mvtwang version of the story

Ku ‘that’

• Demonstrative (6x)• Dem+place (4x)

• Dem+time (1x)

• Dem+person (1x)

• Demonstrative pronoun (1x)

• Relativizer (or adverbializer or nominalizer) (7x)

Ku-yong (adverb)

• Ku-yo ng ‘that-like’ (or that-ADV, like.that, thus)• Adverbial

• Like Mvtwang ku -dø ‘that-way’ or ‘like.that’

• Reduplicated to mean ‘more and more‘ (LaPolla & Poa 2001:50n46)

• Uses:• Continuing motion (reduplicated, often followed by GO, ARRIVE, or DEPART) (14x)

• Continuing state (reduplicated, sometimes followed by LIVE/EXIST) (4x)

• Sequence of actions (2x)

Word frequency

77%

4%

4%

15%

Rvmøn Dvru

ya vya we ku

12% 1%

83%

4%

Mvtwang

ya vya we ku

Word frequency at beginning of sentences

94%

2%

4%

0%

Rvmøn Dvru

ya vya we ku

10%0%

90%

0%

Mvtwang

ya vya we ku

Rvmøn deictic system

yathis

ku

that

ku ː

that over there

(ku) mvdvm taq vl(that) above LOC be

(ku) pvng taq vl(that) below LOC be

Rvmøn discourse deictics

yathis

ku

that

ku ː

that over there

(ku) mvdvm taq vl(that) above LOC be

(ku) pvng taq vl(that) below LOC be

(for Person, Time in storytelling)

Nungish Lisu (Myanmar)

Lisu (China)

Lahu Na

Lahu Shi Jingpho Qiang Lai Chin

This (proximal)

x x x x x x x x

That (medial)

(x) x x x

That (distal)

x x x x x x x x

[˦˥ ˥˥ ˥˩](remote)

x x x

That (out of sight)

(x) x

That (near you)

x x x x

That (up there)

x x x x x

That (downthere)

(x) x x x x

That (contrastive)

x

Types of deictic demonstrative systems

• Distance-oriented• Nungish, most others

• Person-oriented• Lisu, Lai Chin

• Number of terms• 2-way

• Qiang, Lai Chin, Lisu (China)• Nungish: Rvmøn Dvru, Chinlay Tangsar, Waqdamkong (1934)

• 3-way• Jingpho, Lahu• Nungish: Mvtwang, Waqdamkong (2014)

Summary

• Number of distance distinctions:• Rvmøn Dvru: 2• Mvtwang: 3

• Discourse: • Non-distal (proximal or medial) Dem is preferred in storytelling• “Like that” has many uses

• Grammaticalization:• Distal or Medial as relativizer/nominalizer

• Common TB strategies:• Vowel symbolism• High tone symbolism/pragmatics

Thanks!